How to Design Your Own Crochet Scarf

Designing your own crochet items may seem intimidating at first. It was for me! I jumped right in with both feet and my first ever crochet pattern I designed was a sweater. It turned out really well, but I don’t recommend starting with something that complex. It is much better to start with simpler items and work your way up. The simplest and easiest item to design is a scarf.

My First Published Design

When designing your own scarf you really need to know just three things: what stitch pattern you want to use, what yarn you’d like to use, and how big you want it to be (wide and long). Once you know these three things (and really, you don’t have to decide on the length right away) you can easily create your own scarf in no time.

How To Design A Crochet Scarf:

1. Choose your yarn.

The yarn you use has the biggest impact on your finished scarf. If you are just starting out, choose a yarn that is lighter in color and is smooth. No textured yarns or darker colors, as these could make it harder to see your stitches. If you’ve been crocheting for a while and seeing your stitches isn’t a problem, well, the sky’s the limit!

Beautiful color changes in this yarn created the Unforgettable One-Skein Scarf above.

I love color changing yarns for scarves because you get so much beauty for no more work. If I had decided on a single color yarn for the Unforgettable One Skein Scarf, I’m sure it wouldn’t be nearly as popular (it’s one of my most popular patterns on Ravelry). Although, a single color yarn can be interesting if it has unique details, such as the Berroco Elements yarn I used in the Elements Cowl.

Whatever you choose, keep the end result in mind when selecting your yarn. You don’t want a thick, super bulky yarn for a summer scarf and if you choose a sock yarn it will take forever to make a wide, long winter scarf. (Unless you are a super fast crocheter!)

2. Decide on stitch pattern.

I was asked to use a granny stitch to create this scarf.

Most stitch patterns are a multiple of several stitches, which will help you decide how many chains you will need. For example, a stitch pattern could be a multiple of three, so you could make a scarf that is 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, etc stitches wide. If you have a stitch pattern that is a multiple of three plus 2, then chain your multiple of three and add two to the end.

To swatch or not to swatch? For a basic scarf I don’t swatch unless I am checking out how my particular yarn looks with my chosen stitch pattern. Otherwise, I chain in multiples until it is about the width I want. Most scarves are between 6-8″ wide so I usually will do at least 5″ wide, depending upon the look I want.

If you aren’t sure how your yarn will work with your stitch pattern or you are unsure if you like the stitch pattern itself, you really do need to swatch.

3. Decide on width.

Figure out how wide you want the scarf to be. For some stitch patterns, you may be limited by multiples, but this doesn’t happen very often since most multiples are not that many stitches wide. I have had a problem in the past, though, were I wanted to make a scarf about 6″ wide and the stitch pattern didn’t quite work. You can either go back to the drawing board and pick a new stitch pattern, or decide that a little narrower or wider than your original idea is okay.

If you swatched, then you can use that information to figure out how many stitches to chain. If you didn’t, you can do what I normally do. I chain an appropriate length for my stitch pattern (such as 15 for a multiple of 3 as seen in the Primrose Cowl) and see about how wide that would be. It’s not exact, but it’s pretty close. Don’t include your turning chain when you are deciding on width.

4. Work until desired length – or until you run out of yarn!

A typical scarf is normally as long as you are tall (or the person you are making it for). So, for me, I like to make mine about 68″ since I’m 5’8″ tall. I usually just estimate by holding it up next to me when I think it’s getting long enough or I want to check my progress. I just eyeball it. A few times I’ve run out of yarn and it was a decent length so I let it go at that.

How much yarn do you need? Some narrower scarves only use one skein (like this one) but most are going to need at least 2 skeins. If you are making an extra wide or extra long scarf, you will probably need 4 or 5 skeins.

You can add fringe or any edging you like. It’s totally up to you! I added buttons to this scarf so it could easily be worn as a cowl in a number of different ways. For it, I wanted a one-skein project so I kept going until I ran out of yarn.

Conclusion

That’s it! It really is that simple. I love to create scarves and cowls because they are simple to design and work up so quickly with crochet (knitting is another story for me…).

An important tip to remember is that if you are ever planning on making this again, or want to share it with anyone, write everything down as you are making it. Trust me, you cannot rely on your memory for this!! I have a great memory and can’t remember certain details of projects if I put them aside too long, especially since I always have so many projects in the works. (Am I the only one?)

So what will your next project be? Leave a comment below and share pictures if you decide to design your own crochet scarf!

Comments

Hi Deby! Thanks for letting me know the links weren’t working! I had to update my DNS settings for that site so it would redirect. It’s working again now and I am going to go through and update all my links. I never knew it was so much work to move a site! 🙂

Bloggers: Seeking designs for your upcoming roundup? I’d love for you to feature my work! You have my permission to use one photo in your roundup post as long as a link is provided back to the associated pattern page. Please let me know when your post is published so I can share it on my social media, too. Thank you!